Eduard Imhof

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Eduard Imhof's signature

Eduard Imhof (born January 25, 1895 in Schiers , † April 27, 1986 in Erlenbach ZH ) was a Swiss cartographer .

Life

He was the founder of the Institute for Cartography at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich , which he headed from 1925 to 1965. From 1960 to 1978 he headed the working group for the creation of the Atlas of Switzerland. The Institute for Cartography is thus the world's oldest cartographic university institute. Eduard Imhof's school maps and atlases (including the Swiss Middle School Atlas ) became known far beyond the university. Imhof also became famous for his very precisely worked relief models . In particular, the relief models of the Alpine peaks Bietschhorn (1939) and Gross Windgällen (1938) should be mentioned.

Imhof also became known through his expedition to China in 1930 with Arnold Heim and Paul Nabholz when he was measuring the mountain Minya Konka with the expedition group. The result of the survey was not 10,000 meters, as rumors said, but only 7,590 meters above sea level. This means that Mount Everest was still the highest mountain in the world. In 1954 he climbed the Ararat . In 1958 the Swiss Alpine Club SAC made him an honorary member.

1961 to 1978 he was editor-in-chief of Atlas der Schweiz . The first edition appeared in 1978.

He was the first president of the International Cartographic Association .

1995 marked the 100th anniversary of his birthday. That was an occasion to remember him and his work through exhibitions, among others in Zurich, Bern, Bad Ragaz, Barcelona, ​​Karlsruhe and Berlin. The last exhibition in this context took place in the summer of 1997 in the graphic collection of the ETH. Many of the maps and pictures could be shown in the original there. Following this exhibition, Imhof's original works were bequeathed to the ETH Library in Zurich by the family.

Honors

In 1949 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Zurich. In 1968 he was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina .

Eduard Imhof was a citizen of the Fahrni near Thun community. In 1999/2000 the community of Fahrni erected a memorial in honor of its famous citizen on the highest point of the community (915 m above sea level) in the most beautiful panoramic position. From here you can enjoy an incomparable panoramic view from the Alps over the Central Plateau to the Jura heights.

In 1997 the deep-sea mountain Imhof Knoll in the Southern Ocean off the coast of Antarctica was named in his honor.

  • View of the memorial from the north.

  • Memorial plaque with a description of the site.

Works

Drawing by Imhof from the Passo di San Giacomo (September 11, 1934)
  • Terrain and Map (1950)
  • Mapping of the terrain (1965)
  • Unknown Turkey. Where East and West meet (1970)
  • Textbook of General Geography, Volume 10, Thematic Cartography (1972) ISBN 3-11-002122-6
  • The Great Cold Mountains of Scechuan (1974)
  • Sculptor of the mountains. A report on alpine mountain models (1981)

literature

  • Elisabeth Eggimann Gerber: Imhof, Eduard. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Viola Imhof: Eduard Imhof. A life with maps . Association for Economic History Studies, Meilen 1990.
  • Hans Hauri u. a .: Eduard Imhof. Work and action . Verlag Füssli, Zurich 1970 (Festschrift for the 75th birthday)
  • Hans Suter (Red.): A creative life's work. Eduard Imhof on his 90th birthday . Verlag Ott, Thun 1985, ISBN 3-7225-6895-1 .
  • Paul Caminada: pioneers of alpine topography . AS Verlag Zürich 2003, ISBN 3-905111-99-3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Atlas of Switzerland, ETH Library ( Memento from October 6, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Member entry of Eduard Imhof at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on November 17, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Imhof, Eduard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss cartographer
DATE OF BIRTH January 25, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Schiers
DATE OF DEATH April 27, 1986
Place of death Erlenbach ZH